


Compass

by Otrera



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-23
Updated: 2017-12-23
Packaged: 2019-02-18 19:13:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13106709
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Otrera/pseuds/Otrera
Summary: Soulmate AU where everyone has a compass tattoo on their wrist that points at their soulmate.





	Compass

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @spnaubingo over on tumblr. Square filled: soulmates

The first time someone called Sam a freak, he was eight. It was a fifth grader on the playground making fun of his broken compass. All the other kids' compasses pointed at one spot most of the time, but Sam's was always spinning, spinning, spinning non-stop. Dean's compass was like that, too, so Sam did his best to ignore the kid. If he was like Dean, how could it be a bad thing?

Sam spent long hours in the Impala amusing himself by watching his compass spin bizarrely. He tried to follow the tip of the arrow with his finger, but it moved too fast. When he was really little, their dad didn't care much if there compasses were showing, but as they got older he insisted they hide their compasses underneath long sleeves.

By the time Sam left to go to Stanford, he was pretty sure the reason his compass moved so fast was because he didn't have a soulmate. He met a girl, Jessica, who was born without a compass, and they were happy together. Then she burned on the ceiling, just like his mother.

Dean went to Hell and came back with an angel called Castiel. Sam didn't notice at first, because Dean still hid his compass under long sleeves, but Dean's compass didn't spin dizzyingly anymore. At least, not all the time. When Castiel was nearby, or even on Earth, Dean's compass behaved like a normal person's.

"Is Castiel your soulmate?" Sam finally asked.

"Yeah," said Dean.

And that was that.

They sometimes got a separate motel room at night, but more often than not Dean slept in a bed by himself and Cas watched from nearby. Sam thought it was weird, but it worked for them, so he didn't say anything about it.

Their being soulmate led to him wondering about his own compass. Maybe the way it spun meant his soulmate was an angel, too. He didn't know whether to hope that was the case or not. They had yet to meet a single angel who wasn't a douche, save for Cas, and as much as Sam wanted to believe in angels the way he had as a child, it didn't seem like those kinds of angels really existed.

Then they outed the Trickster as Gabriel. Gabriel started to hang around more after they uncovered his true identity, and Sam started to notice the effect he had on Sam's compass. When he was around, the arrow tended to slow down when it pointed in Gabriel's direction, then go back to spinning around really fast. It was like Gabriel was a weak magnet, and Sam's compass was attracted to a stronger magnet but Gabriel kept interfering.

Sam said yes to Lucifer and fought him at Stull Cemetery. He fell into the Pit with Michael and Lucifer. Gabriel pulled his body out and made a deal with Death to get his soul back. Gabriel confessed that Sam was his soulmate, but he didn't know if Sam was his. They started a tentative relationship.

Years passed. The angels fell. Sam tried and failed to complete the Trials. Dean sent out a prayer for an angel, any angel, to stop Sam from dying. An angel who called himself Ezekiel showed up at the hospital and offered to help.

Without hesitation, Gabriel grabbed the angel by his shirt and slammed him into the wall. "You are _not_ Ezekiel."

They trapped him in holy fire. Gabriel revealed that he was Gadreel, the angel who let Lucifer into Eden. Gabriel raged and seethed and called him _liar_ and _traitor_ and _scum_ , but still Gadreel insisted he could help Sam.

"It will be the beginning of my redemption," he said. "I have not had a chance at redemption in millennia. I will not throw away this one."  
So they convinced Sam to say yes to him.

They didn't lie to him when he woke up. Gabriel wasted no time in informing him that he would do whatever it took to keep Sam alive, and Dean seconded that motion. Sam was horrified, and rightfully so, and spent most of his first day awake trying to expel Gadreel. It didn't work.

Gadreel spoke with him in a dream that night. He promised Sam that he would not do anything to impede his autonomy, and would leave as soon as they were both healed enough. After that, Sam and Gadreel had many conversations in Sam's dreams. Sometimes Gadreel offered Sam advice for a hunt, other times Sam told him about their attempts to defeat Metatron, and other times still they simply talked about meaningless, arbitrary matters.

Eventually, Sam and Gadreel healed enough for Gadreel to leave Sam's body and take a vessel of his own. He stayed in the bunker, and built up relationships with everyone else. He got along surprisingly well with Kevin, who enjoyed having another person who could read Enochian. Dean, Cas, and Gabriel all had a grudging respect for him, if only because he saved Sam's life, but only Gabriel reached out beyond that and actually forged something like friendship with him.

Sam started to feel guilty about how much time he was spending with Gadreel. He almost spent more time with him than with Gabriel. The more time he spent with Gadreel, the more he noticed that his compass acted the same way around Gadreel as it did around Gabriel.

One evening, he acted on a hunch and asked Gabriel and Gadreel to stand next to each other. He pulled up the sleeve of his shirt and stared at his compass. It was moving slowly, slower than it ever had before, and moving to point at Gabriel, then Gadreel. Back and forth, back and forth. Gabriel, Gadreel. Gabriel, Gadreel.

Sam swallowed the lump in his throat. "Can a person have more than one soulmate?"

"Yes," they answered simultaneously.

And that was that.

None of the bunker's other residents said anything when the three of them moved into one room. If they thought it was weird, they didn't let on. Dean did, however, tell Sam that he wanted a pair of noise-cancelling headphones for Christmas.


End file.
